Ephesians 2:11-13 (NKJV) 11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh–who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands– 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Once again, we find ourselves at the end of another year. We are closing in on Christmas followed by the beginning of a new year. Usually there are people who look to the next year with one of two thoughts. Some wave a fond goodbye to the year that is ending, hoping for something at least as good for the one coming. Others thank God that the current year is ending and pray that the next will not be a repeat. I doubt anyone is looking back fondly on 2020. It has been the worst year of my nearly 67. 2021 has to be better, right? Please say yes!
What is the power of Christmas? Where does it come from? What is the real gift we should focus on? I believe this is one of many new testament scriptures that can tell us. In verse 12, Paul points out one human condition. He says to his readers that there was a time when they were without hope and without God in the world. For many people in 2020, that has been a very apt description of how they feel. In this verse, Paul makes this statement as a fact not just an emotion. He says to the Ephesians that this was their condition.
He also tells us why some people are in this condition. He says they were not part of Israel because they were “strangers from the covenants of promise.” The issue here is not that they were of a race other than Hebrew. Many important people in the history of Israel were not Jewish. The reason they were “without hope and without God in the world was that they were not part of the covenant God entered into with Abraham. This covenant agreement provided Israel with promises that those outside of the covenant did not have a right to.
This does not mean that God never moves for people outside covenant relationship with him. In the ministry of Jesus there was a woman of Syro-Phoenician birth who came to Jesus for the healing of her daughter. Jesus initially tells her that it is not time for him to go beyond Israel. In the end, he is moved by her faith and heals her daughter anyway. God will move for anyone who believes him, but there is a difference for those in covenant with God.
God is bound to move for those with whom he is in covenant. Covenant creates relationship. If it is properly understood, the blood covenant, which is the kind always implied in the Bible, is stronger than any other relationship including family. It is an unbreakable relationship. It is a relationship that makes everything that belongs to one partner legally and morally the other partner’s as well. This involves everything from resources to abilities. To those who have a covenant relationship with God, he is obliged to withhold nothing from his covenant partners. Of course, the other member of the covenant is so obliged as well.
God desires to care people whether they are in covenant or not. However, Peter tells us that we have an adversary here on the earth (1 Peter 5:8-11.) He calls this adversary the devil and makes it clear that he is actively opposing the will of God in our lives and in the world. This adversary has been called the God of this world by both Paul and Jesus. He gained legal authority over God’s family, mankind, in the fall described in Genesis 3. Because of that, Satan has the right to bring his will into the life of people and into the system that is currently in control of the world.
A covenant made by God with man overrides the devils right to block God’s moving in our lives. Without a covenant relationship, we are what Paul calls us in Ephesians 2:12. We are without God and without hope in the world. Those who have a covenant relationship with God are not without him and, therefore, are never without hope. They have a covenant, and the Devil has no right nor power to stop the promises of God from coming to pass in our lives. They know what God will do because it is in his covenant. When they call upon the blessings of the covenant, the devil cannot keep those blessings from coming to pass in the life of the covenant believer.
The one thing that is still necessary is faith in the covenant and our invisible covenant partner. The covenant is written in the Word of God, the Bible. The more we know what our covenant promises, the more our faith for those promises grows. When we speak those covenant promises into our lives and into the world around us, we are enforcing their legality and overriding the dominion our adversary took from Adam. They become the law and the reality of our lives in the earth.
In the case of Israel, the covenant was between God and Abraham. Covenants always include the descendants of the covenant partners, therefore it extended to Abraham’s descendants. It also included any who would become “spiritual descendants” by accepting and living by the terms of the covenant. Since it was a covenant between God and fallen people, it had to include a way to restore relationship when Israel inevitably broke it. That way was the law and sacrifices set out in the Old Testament.
Israel did break the covenant quite often. They broke it as individuals and as a nation. When they did, they opened the door to the adversary. They cut themselves off from the blessings and promises of God. They tied the hands of their covenant partner. We read throughout the Old Testament the consequences of this behavior. There were plagues, wars and eventual slavery that came to them when they broke the covenant. However, Israel had something that no other nation had. They had a way back into the blessings of the covenant. They had the law. Whenever they repented and returned to God, they were once again invincible in all they did.
In verse 12, Paul speaks of one possible condition in which people might live. In verse 13, he tells us we are in a different condition once we received Jesus. We are not without God and without hope because we are not without a covenant. However, the New Covenant is different from the old in that it is not between God and a merely physical man. It is between God and his Son. Neither party will ever break this covenant. We are part of it because we are in Christ. The covenant is always in force where the nation of the Church is concerned.
If we sin, we have a far more efficient way back into the blessing of the covenant. We simply confess our sin to God. Since the covenant is still in force, we are immediately forgiven and cleansed of any legal unrighteousness our sin may have caused.
I believe this is a truth we must begin to enforce in our faith for 2021. We are not now, nor will we ever be, without hope nor without God in the world. I have covenant with God in Christ. My covenant is a better covenant because it is based on better promises and a deeper form of relationship with God than Israel could have before Jesus came (Hebrews 8:6.) As we face the challenges in the world today, let the devil know that you have a covenant with God. Let him know that the promises of God are all yes and amen because of your covenant with Jesus. While you are at it, tell yourself as well!
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